"In a world that was so regimented in the 1960s, surfing was freedom," says Ken Bradshaw, a 49-year-old Texan who in 1998 surfed the biggest recorded wave in history. Bradshaw's just one of the elite featured here - an oddball collection of rock 'n' rollers, thrill-seekers and hermits. For these men and women the sport seems almost sexual, with their talk of "thrusts", "swells" and "peaks".
Like latter-day Argonauts, the search for surf takes them across the globe, and the rewards - personal or pecuniary - are staggering. To carry the analogy, if Brad Gerlach, once ranked number two in the world until he unexpectedly quit, is Jason, then Mike Parsons (Gerlach's arch-rival) is the crew's Orpheus, monkish and self-contained. And it's Parsons who tops and tails the film, surfing a 70 foot wave - named Cyclops, after the one-eyed monster in 'The Odyssey' - before the might of nature crashes down upon him. For that feat, at 'Jaws' in Hawaii, he'd win a perfect 10 and make surfing history.
But this is more than a Who's Who of surfers: interspersed with personal stories - from the likes of Ken 'Skindog' Collins, one of the 'Santa Cruz Boys' who surf all day and party all night. We discover how being a surfer in the 1980s meant being a corporate whore - as Gerlach, pictured in flashback festooned with sponsorship labels, more walking advertisement than human, soon discovered.
If the 1990s saw advances in weather forecasting, computer technology pinpointing bigger waves with a high degree of accuracy, we also learn how water-sports are now cross-pollinating, combining aspects of gliding and snowboarding. It's a truly transcendental moment as "'surf-scientist' Rush Randle demonstrates aerial-acrobatics on his hydrofoil board, affording the film a quiet majesty all too often interrupted by an MTV rock soundtrack.
The cinematography is incredible, but this stuff would look impressive on home video. Importantly, the dangers of surfing are made perfectly clear: in surfing spots that translate as "Broken Skulls" in Tahitian, it's shocking to suddenly see the odd flash of crimson amid the blue, white and green.
Like latter-day Argonauts, the search for surf takes them across the globe, and the rewards - personal or pecuniary - are staggering. To carry the analogy, if Brad Gerlach, once ranked number two in the world until he unexpectedly quit, is Jason, then Mike Parsons (Gerlach's arch-rival) is the crew's Orpheus, monkish and self-contained. And it's Parsons who tops and tails the film, surfing a 70 foot wave - named Cyclops, after the one-eyed monster in 'The Odyssey' - before the might of nature crashes down upon him. For that feat, at 'Jaws' in Hawaii, he'd win a perfect 10 and make surfing history.
But this is more than a Who's Who of surfers: interspersed with personal stories - from the likes of Ken 'Skindog' Collins, one of the 'Santa Cruz Boys' who surf all day and party all night. We discover how being a surfer in the 1980s meant being a corporate whore - as Gerlach, pictured in flashback festooned with sponsorship labels, more walking advertisement than human, soon discovered.
If the 1990s saw advances in weather forecasting, computer technology pinpointing bigger waves with a high degree of accuracy, we also learn how water-sports are now cross-pollinating, combining aspects of gliding and snowboarding. It's a truly transcendental moment as "'surf-scientist' Rush Randle demonstrates aerial-acrobatics on his hydrofoil board, affording the film a quiet majesty all too often interrupted by an MTV rock soundtrack.
The cinematography is incredible, but this stuff would look impressive on home video. Importantly, the dangers of surfing are made perfectly clear: in surfing spots that translate as "Broken Skulls" in Tahitian, it's shocking to suddenly see the odd flash of crimson amid the blue, white and green.